TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras – Fewer than 100 protestors organized outside the Globo radio station Tuesday morning to protest the government´s closure of the pro-Manuel Zelaya outlet Monday following an executive order limiting rights of free speech around the country.
José Luis Calix, a volunteer for the resistance movement, said the decision by de facto President Roberto Micheletti to close the station was a human rights violation.
“We no longer have the right to stay informed,” Calix said.
Andrés Sierra, a fellow protestor, said the de facto government is only interested in silencing dissent instead of promoting dialogue that would end the conflict.
“The resistance media have been shut down, and the media that attack us have been allowed to continue,” Sierra said.
Micheletti spokesman César Cáceres insisted outside the de facto president´s house Tuesday that the decision to temporarily close Globo was not political, but aimed at preventing more violence from breaking out.
Globo´s broadcasts were shut down following an on-air interview with Zelaya Monday in which he called for sympathizers around the country to descend on Tegucigalpa for “one final struggle.”
“Of all the protests leading up to this decree, not one of them was peaceful,” Cáceres said. “(The Resistance Front) tried to create a sense of terror among the population.”
The Honduran Congress has called on Micheletti to lift his executive order, a demand the de facto leader seems to be considering. According to Honduran daily La Tribuna, Micheletti promised to discuss the matter with the Supreme Court, the Supreme Elections Tribunal and presidential candidates in order to reach a decision on the decree.
